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12 February 2013

The Times of Israel has this item telling us that "Egyptian security forces have pumped water into smuggling tunnels and intensified their patrols along the border with Gaza in a bid to crack down on smuggling activity, Palestinian media reported Monday." Now, that I can take on board and even believe. Ever since terrorists smuggling goods through the tunnels into Gaza ambushed Egyptian soldiers and killed 16 of them, this has not been Morsi's favourite part of the world, Moslem Brotherhood big shot or not.

However, it's the next bit that took my breath away: "Tunnel owners in Rafah..." Tunnel owners!? You mean somebody (possibly other than Hamas) makes a profit out of this? It's a business? Dick Stanley, politics and joking aside, as a supporter of capitalism and free enterprise, you have to support this, even if you don't accept the ends to which this effort is directed.

These capitalists are even installing pumps at their end of the tunnels to pump the water out again. It all, obviously, comes down to who has the bigger and better pumps.

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The information about the tunnel industry in Gaza is quite true, the business (and it is a business, mind you) is huge, in tens of millions ($$). Moreover, it is done under protection, assistance and sponsorship of Hamas. Only a small part of the stuff passing through the tunnels is arms, a lot of "civilian" materials go through too.

Now, don't think that Hamas does it for pure altruism. They collect a tax from tunnel owners/operators. A substantial one, too.

And, of course, the technical savvy of the tunnel diggers is used to do the same or similar under the Gaza/Israel border.

That last bit I knew, Snoopy, I'd just never guessed the scale of the value (both as profit and as taxes) this involves. Does Israel extract tax on goods going into Gaza? Or does flow across a tax-free border?

Brian: taxing the tunnel owners has been a significant revenue stream for the HAMAS gov't. If they are blocking tunnels off or otherwise rendering them useless, either the owners failed to pay up, or this is job creation for the excavation teams.